MP3: #465: Myanmar Opens Up

After decades of isolation, Myanmar is reconnecting with the rest of the world. On today's show, we meet two people who are trying to take advantage of the changes going on there.One is launching a tiny startup. The other works for Coca-Cola â€” a company that left Myanmar decades ago, and only returned to the country last year.For more, see our stories "Can This Man Bring Silicon Valley To Yangon?" and "How To ... Source: npr.org

It's called "Iceland" for a reason. Polar bears sometimes wind up there floating by on chunks of ice. In the winter, there are only a few hours of daylight each day.Reykjavik feels like you took a European city â€” coffee shops, fancy cars, orderly streets â€” and put it on the moon.Which raises a question: How did a barren, icy island become a thriving, modern economy?The short answer: Fish, energy and boo...

If you're looking for the beginning â€” and, possibly, the end â€” of the European financial crisis, you can find it in a single building: The Greek statistics office, at 46 Peireos Street in Athens.We visited recently and found what may be the world's most high-stakes game of office politics.On one side: The technocrats, led by Andreas Georgiou, who was appointed last year to run the office.On the othe...

One set of not very popular folks is now suing another. It's bond insurer MBIA versus financial giant Merrill Lynch. At issue: whether the latter misled the former into selling insurance way too cheaply. Securities lawyer Zachary Rosenbaum decodes the briefs.Plus: Listener Renee Rico responds to the Elizabeth Warren interview.

Jack Abramoff, the former lobbyist, is out of prison and available for interviews. On today's show we talk to him â€” not about his crimes, but about the legal kind of lobbying that goes on every day. And we find out, how much do companies benefit from the business of lobbying.

Gift-giving makes economists crazy. It's so inefficient!So we wondered: Is there a way to make the holiday season both more efficient and more joyful?On today's Planet Money, we try to answer that question by conducting a wildly unscientific experiment. We go into a seventh-grade classroom and give a bunch of kids some small gifts â€” candy, raisins, fig newtons.Then we ask them how much they value what they...